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VW is driving hydrogen cars: "With a tank filling up to 2000 kilometers far"

2022-04-21T03:02:41.993Z


VW is driving hydrogen cars: "With a tank filling up to 2000 kilometers far" Created: 04/21/2022, 04:49 am By: Patrick Freiwah Europe's largest car manufacturer, Volkswagen, is pushing ahead with the expansion of hydrogen technology. © Joerg Boethling/Sylvio Dittrich/Imago Is the automotive industry focusing entirely on electromobility? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that. Ir


VW is driving hydrogen cars: "With a tank filling up to 2000 kilometers far"

Created: 04/21/2022, 04:49 am

By: Patrick Freiwah

Europe's largest car manufacturer, Volkswagen, is pushing ahead with the expansion of hydrogen technology.

© Joerg Boethling/Sylvio Dittrich/Imago

Is the automotive industry focusing entirely on electromobility?

Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that.

Ironically, Europe's largest carmaker Volkswagen is pushing ahead with an alternative.

Wolfsburg/Munich - Electric cars are increasingly shaping the streetscape and seem to be slowly but surely replacing vehicles with conventional combustion engines.

However, the fact that e-mobility will be the dominant form of drive in the medium term is probably only half the truth.

While more and more electric vehicles are coming onto the streets, the car industry is working in the background on other sustainable energy sources.

VW boss blasphemes about hydrogen cars - but the group is pushing the topic

The example of Volkswagen makes it clear that hydrogen technology will play a major role in future private transport.

The amazing thing: Publicly, VW boss Herbert Diess* has repeatedly stated in the past that he does not consider fuel cell technology to be sustainable.

In particular, a tweet last year addressed to prominent politicians made one sit up and take notice:

In reality, the VW boardroom seems to see the facts somewhat: the group has applied for a patent for a special fuel cell with the Saxon company Kraftwerk Tubes GmbH, reports

BusinessInsider

.

There is no doubt that Volkswagen is leaving this path open and is pushing ahead with hydrogen technology in opposition to public "fog candles".

Volkswagen* is not the first car company to deal with hydrogen as a form of drive: Mercedes, BMW and the Asian manufacturers Toyota and Hyundai have already chosen the fuel cell as a hobby and developed models ready for series production.

However, these cars have so far been much more expensive to buy.

With the technology now initiated by VW, there is a striking difference.

Power plant boss Sascha Kühn explains to the portal: “The main difference to the fuel cells from Hyundai and Toyota is that we rely on a ceramic membrane instead of the usual plastic membrane.

We are the only manufacturer of this technology that produces the ceramic membrane in such a way that the fuel cell can be started up quickly.” The managing director explains that this is a huge difference.

The advantages compared to the “polymer” fuel cell are, on the one hand, the lower production costs and the fact that platinum is not used.

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VW: Full steam ahead for e-mobility - but hydrogen also plays a major role

Wolfsburg engineers seem to have been dealing with the topic for a long time: "It always works like this: we supply the core technology and then develop it further together with the manufacturer's engineers and design the vehicle," explains founder Kühn about the partnership with the car giant .

The interesting question: Why do VW boss Diess or his Tesla colleague Elon Musk* publicly put hydrogen technology in a bad light?

It is possible that Volkswagen wants to use a "clean" electric strategy to make people forget the aftermath of the unwelcome diesel scandal.

In addition, a consistent e-strategy based on the model of the booming mega-empire Tesla should be well received by investors, the portal suspects.

Conversely, competitors who consider this technology to be groundbreaking and are driving it forward would be publicly pilloried - so the theory goes.

However, given the recent deal, that should have been the end of it.

In the transport sector* in particular, it has long been clear that hydrogen could play a key role in generating energy for future mobility.

In addition, it must be mentioned that hydrogen propulsion is itself a form of electromobility.

German prototype: hybrid hydrogen car with a range of 1,000 km

Hydrogen car from VW?

“Up to 2000 kilometers with one tank filling”

The goal for the breakthrough of this form of mobility is the so-called solid cell battery - a topic on which Mercedes* has also been working at full speed for some time.

"Technologically, it would almost be equivalent to our solution (...) The solid-state batteries only have a solid material as energy storage, while gas takes over this part in our fuel cell," explains Kühn - and predicts shorter refueling times with the innovative technology: 

In terms of range, the innovative, specially designed fuel cell is supposed to break new ground: "We can travel up to 2000 kilometers with one tankful," says the power plant boss.

Meanwhile, BMW is of the opinion that the swan song of the combustion engine is too soon.

(PF)*Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-04-21

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